The narrative is: Canadian guy meets Hiroshima gal, then they have a couple of baby girls. The lighter side of bicultural parenting.

June 16, 2008

Politics and BBQs

Elena Supports Hillary to the End

Last week, our little politico and I watched Hillary Clinton’s “support Barack Obama” concession speech in Washington. Now, Elena and I have been arguing endlessly during the primaries about Ms. Clinton’s various campaign twists, especially the halting use of social media to spread her messages. Elena claims that Hillary-chan’s emphasis on “yes, we can!” mainstream messaging was the right call, and she thinks her handlers ruined the Clinton campaign by going negative too early. I keep telling her that no matter what happens, Clinton had the “toughness and experience factors” and non-elitist image that would really be important come November, but that gas prices and other economic realities will trump those any day for the average voter. She agreed that Mr. Obama was the first presumptive presidential candidate that really leveraged the possibilities of the new communication technologies. Man, that kid is brilliant!

Think FDR’s fireside chats, think Kennedy’s use of television, and then think about what we’ve witnessed over the past year and a half.

The Rising Daughter calls me a fossil. But as you can see, she was sad to watch Hillary hightail it. As was I, and it was a great speech. Look at those wistful eyes...!

That H.C. could make such progress for women in America…what kind of inroads will the Rising Daughter witness in her lifetime? Makes ya think, don’t it?

Rick and Naomi’s BBQIn contrast to the previous post, the most recent picnic we attended was a BBQ hosted by our friends Rick and Naomi and their family. A sizable group of friends showed up for the fun. By the by, I was originally introduced to my future wife, ‘”my” Naomi, at one of Rick’s birthday parties more than a few years ago.

We hadn’t seen R&N in quite some time, so catching up was fun. Our friend Sachie was also there with her daughter, too. I snapped a few photos of the ladies, including this one. The baby harness intrigued Naomi in that she could keep our two-legged tornado under control. This infringement on Lady E’s innate right to ramble around naturally brought on screeching wails of protest, and the experiment was soon abandoned. Perhaps we can use a modified version next year to put Elena to work plowing the fields before planting the rice seeds?